


Numerosity

by In_Time_of_Peril



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (BBV Audio), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Mindgame (Reeltime 1998)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-21
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-02-26 11:28:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2650385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/In_Time_of_Peril/pseuds/In_Time_of_Peril
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor, Ace, and Raine are stranded on an unfamiliar planet, separated from the TARDIS, and somehow surrounded by versions of Ace from various other realities.  Time is running out, but for what?  For who?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Anacamptic

The Doctor stared into the lowering flames and sighed.  He had been separated from the TARDIS before, in this lifetime and in others.  They always found each other again; it was just a matter of time.  Ah, time.  Always time.  Even when it seemed to run out, there was more to be found somewhere.  
  
A hand on his shoulder made him jump, knocking his hat from his head and nearly dumping his umbrella into the fire.  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"Ace!  Don't sneak up like that."  
  
"I said sorry.  Never been able to do that before; sneak up on you, I mean."  
  
"Yes, well, at the moment, with so many of you around, it clutters even my mind.  Incidentally, you are Ace, aren't you?  My Ace?"  
  
The young woman sighed and picked up a twig.  She mangled it between her fingers as she spoke.  
  
"I'm me, Doctor.  I'm not Alice, or Dory, or Dot, or some space mercenary with no official name.  I'm the same Ace you met on Iceworld, both of my legs work just fine, I don't have any cybernetic implants, and I'm not engaged to Raine.  That I know of."  
  
Across the small clearing, there was a snort of laughter from one of the supposedly sleeping figures.  The Doctor felt rather relieved that there was only one Raine Creevy here with them; it was difficult enough to keep up with all the varying permutations of Ace's mental signature, each functioning at a different level from baseline to chaotic brilliance.  Multiple Raines to go along with the multiple Aces (that they did not all go by that name just made things more difficult) would have been too much.  
  
"Look, what're we gonna do?  I mean, doesn't multiple copies of the same person in the same place at the same time equal massive time problems or something?"  
  
"Sometimes.  Generally, however, the trouble seems worst when it's all the same person from different points within the same timestream.  So far, every you we've met is from a different parallel reality, a different universe created when one tiny thing, or not so tiny thing, went slightly differently."  
  
"So, like, even just something like my parents giving me a different name..."  
  
"Means a different reality.  Though apparently even in many of those existences, you travel with me."  
  
The Doctor smiled and found that, for the first time in a while, Ace was smiling back at him.  Just as quickly, however, her smile faded.  
  
"What about the ones who weren't traveling with you?  Dory, she - she never did anything to end up here."  
  
"That's not necessarily true.  Even she could..."  
  
"She's - she's slow, though.  She never - I mean, she..."  
  
Ace trailed off and looked down at her boots.  After a heavy sigh, she met the Doctor's gaze again.  
  
"You know, when I was little, seven or eight, my mum - there was a guy, Geoffrey.  He was around a lot.  Didn't like me much, but he put up with me, I guess.  Then one night, I woke up from - I'd had a really bad dream.  I didn't think, and I called for my mum.  The guy came instead."  
  
"Oh, Ace..."  
  
"He - he bundled me up in my blanket and carried me into the front room.  There was this big carton in the front closet where Mum used to keep some old stuff that had been her dad's.  Geoffrey tumped it all out on the floor and stuck me in the carton instead.  Then he taped it shut."  
  
The Doctor wanted to reach out to Ace, to comfort her away from the tears that were creeping into her voice.  Instead, he let her sit and huff out a few harsh breaths.  
  
"I guess," she concluded, "that was the night in Dory's reality when he threw her down the stairs and she got - when her brain was damaged."  
  
"That seems likely."  
  
"So - there but for fate, huh?  I mean, not that I believe in fate, really.  Everything happens because it happens, yeah?"  
  
His failure to answer did not seem to disturb Ace too deeply.  She was used to him by now, or said she was.  She seemed to be.  Instead of pushing matters further, she stood and wandered over to where Raine was lying, crawling into the bedroll without even kicking off her boots.  He had seen her do something like that before, a time or two.  You never knew, she had said after he asked, when you might need to be on your feet and running suddenly.  
  
The Doctor sighed and went back to staring at the fire.  He was away from the TARDIS on a planet he did not know; not such an uncommon occurrence.  To be surrounded by copies of a current companion, though - that was different.  The last time that had happened...  
  
"Best not thought about," he muttered, kicking at a pebble.


	2. Ardour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raine wakes to find that, in their current strange situation, some things have actually changed very little.

Raine woke slowly in the darkness, the warm breath on her neck sending shivers to the base of her spine.  There was an arm draped casually over her waist, the hand twitching now and then against her shirt.  She rolled over and blinked hard when she realised that Ace was apparently already awake.  
  
"Is it morning?"  
  
"I don't think so.  You all right?"  
  
"Mmm, well, considering all the rocks around here, yes.  Seems like you aren't, though."  
  
"I'm not a big sleeper."  
  
"That's the biggest lie I think you've told to my face yet."  
  
Ace grinned, a false, brittle expression, and her grip on Raine tightened.  
  
"Probably.  I guess - well, wouldn't you be kinda tense if there were a bunch of you wandering around?"  
  
"Yes.  I suppose.  But it's not a bunch of me that we're concerned with.  It's a bunch of you."  
  
"That's a good thing in your opinion?"  
  
Nodding slowly, Raine pressed even closer to Ace.  
  
"You can't even imagine how good a thing it is."  
  
"Maybe some of me aren't into you."  
  
"Could be.  But I'd be willing to bet enough of them are."  
  
"You sound like you're planning an orgy."  
  
"How can it be an orgy," Raine husked, "when most of the participants are basically the same person?"  
  
Suddenly, Ace's arm had moved from Raine's waist, and her hand was creeping down between them.  
  
"You really that into getting it on with all of me?"  
  
"The thought had occurred."  
  
"Hmm.  And what about getting a jump on things right now?  That thought occurred to you?"  
  
"Possibly."  
  
Any further words Raine might have had stored up were forgotten entirely as she dove in and kissed Ace hard, almost violently.  Ace's fingers had slipped into Raine's jeans, past her knickers, and were working roughly through the slit of her sex.  
  
"Easy," Ace whispered, "easy and quiet."  
  
"Fuck," Raine sighed in return.  
  
"That's just what we're doing.  Well, starting to do."  
  
Raine tried to reach down and touch Ace as well, only to feel her companion's hips shift away slightly.  
  
"Just you for now, okay?  I'm - it's not..."  
  
"I get it.  We don't have to..."  
  
"You want it, so - yeah."  
  
Ace's hand was moving faster now, driving Raine on so that she lacked the ability to disagree at the moment.  She simply abandoned herself to the feelings until she came, pressing closer to muffle her cry against Ace's shoulder.  
  
When it was over, she let herself be held, really held, while Ace rattled out the usual patter of words.  
  
"So good.  You're so good, Raine.  God, you're soft and - fuck, you're good."  
  
And then it seemed that Ace was the one needing to be held, so Raine took on task of offering comfort, letting the other woman cling to her as they both drifted off.


	3. Clinophobia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor dares not sleep while things are so disordered; he's not alone in his fear.

There was an unconscionable amount of underbrush creeping across what had once been the trail.  The Doctor swatted at it with the tip of his umbrella, then marched on.  What, he wondered, had he done?  What mistake had he made to land them all here?  Had only he made this mistake, or had other versions of himself from other realities done the same?

"What mistakes **haven't** you made in this life?" a voice, soft and bland, muttered in the darkness.

A man, or rather a memory, stepped onto the path ahead.  He was blond, pale, a rather boring looking wraith got up in cricket gear.  Of course the Doctor knew him well, knew that he had been far from boring.  Perhaps he had been more restrained, but that was simply a trick of the regeneration, a rebellion against the madcappery of the previous life.

Really, he sometimes missed being that quiet fellow.

"I've done what I had to do.  When things need to happen, I make them happen."

"Yes.  And hurt those around you in the process.  Just like all the other times.  Like all the other traveling companions..."

" **NEVER**!  I have never tried to hurt those I - I travel with."

The younger Doctor, or rather the ghost of him, smirked, stepping closer.

"Oh, Doctor.  I never said you tried."

Suddenly, his previous incarnation lunged at him, face filled with rage.  The Doctor edged back a half-step, colliding with something - someone? - and falling sideways to the ground.  When he dared look up, his previous self was gone, and there was only a young woman there, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Ace?" he asked, knowing instantly that he was wrong.

"I'm Dot," she said.  There were tears in her eyes, and he could sense that she was hurt in more ways than one.

"There, there.  I'm sorry if I've - well, you ought not to sneak around behind people, hmm?"

"Sorry."

Her voice was much the same as his Ace's.  Not so rough, maybe, and he thought that this girl would never once have sworn in her life.  But the inflection and accent were similar enough.  Sitting up, he scrambled closer to her and rested a fatherly hand on her shoulder.  She sniffled, tensed, and then just as suddenly relaxed.  There was a little injury, might be a bruise later on where her arm had hit a tree as they fell, but the Doctor rubbed gently at the spot and slipped into the simple mind before him, taking away the trace of pain.

"Better?"

"Yes, thanks."

"Dot, why aren't you back at the camp asleep?  Why didn't you stay with the others?"

"Afraid."

"Of what?"

"Being alone."

"You weren't alone.  You had..."

"Me.  A lot of me.  They're all mostly me, huh?"

The Time Lord shrugged, pulling his hand back at last from Dot's shoulder and standing slowly.  He helped her up, brushed down his coat, and smiled at her again.

"They're all very much like you, but different.  Can you understand?"

Now the girl shrugged.

"I don't understand a lot of things.  I'm stupid."

"No you're not."

"Yeah.  I am.  That's why Dad left, Mum says.  That's why people don't like me, and people leave.  My friend 'Nisha - oh, she was well nice - she left.  One day she wasn't there volunteering at the centre anymore, and they said she went away.  Mum said she must've got tired of my stupid."

"I - that's not true at all," the Doctor assured her.  If her world was anything like the world of his Ace, he knew what had happened to that friend.

"Sure it is.  I don't mind, though.  Mum says everyone goes away anyhow, for lots of reasons."

"Well, not everyone's left you.  Your mother..."

"Goes all the time.  She goes out with her friends.  She leaves me alone."

Dot looked ready to cry again, but instead she slammed the heel of one hand into her forehead twice, then tugged at her hair for a moment.

"Why am I so stupid?"

"You're not stupid, honestly.  You've just - got a little trouble with your brain."

"That's lies.  Mum says I'm dumb, just dumb.  Always was."

"Are you sure I'm the one lying?"

They looked at each other, Time Lord and human, and for a moment Dot looked entirely like Ace, like **his** Ace.  The look was gone in a flash, but the Doctor held onto it.  Might be important later.

"I - don't think I always was stupid.  Maybe.  I think - I mean, I go - used to go to regular school.  I mean, with kids the age I was.  Then - now I have to go to the special place.  But I didn't always go."

"See?  You know that much, so you're not stupid."

Dot smiled at him, genuinely smiled.

"You talk like my teacher.  She says that stuff all the time."

"Well, your teacher sounds like a very intelligent woman."

The blank look was fully back in Dot's eyes, but there was still a hint of the smile around her lips.

"My teacher's nice.  She always makes me work hard 'cos she says I can figure out anything."

"As I said," the Doctor chirped, slipping an arm around the girl's shoulders and turning back toward camp, "she sounds like a very intelligent woman."

They walked slowly, Dot chattering away and the Doctor trying not to think of the prickling feelings creeping up the back of his neck.


	4. Cibophobia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes a little fear can be a healthy thing.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

The crouched mercenary, another Ace-but-not-Ace, looked up at Raine.  Her face seemed fixed in a permanent scowl.

"Not used to eating.  Not anymore."

"Well, all the more reason you should, then."

One corner of the nameless woman's mouth twitched up slightly.

"Don't get much chance for real food with the life I lead.  It's all protein synthetics and nutrient pills."

Raine wasn't usually one for crouching, but in this case she made an exception and stooped down.

"Sounds an awfully unappetising life."

"You get used to it.  Besides, you can never tell when someone's poisoned your food or something.  With the pills and synthetics, it's always good.  Unless the machine's gone bad."

"Oh.  Well, are you sure I can't - tempt you?"

No answer - just a negative shake of the head.  Raine rolled her eyes.  She liked this version of Ace (though they wouldn't admit to that name or any other) in spite of it all.  This was a rougher Ace, but an even stronger one.

Cautiously, she reached out and touched their wrist, only to have her own suddenly locked in an iron grip.

"Not without my permission," the woman growled, and there was a familiar glint of gold in the eyes.

"I - I'm sorry.  I just find you..."

"A lot of people do.  Unfortunately for you, I'm not in this for whatever you find me.  I'm in this to get out and get home.  I've got work waiting for me."

"And?"

"And what?  I've got my work."

"But do you have - any friends?  Anything?"

Another little shake of the head.

"Never needed them."

"Oh.  Well, you're not so different from our Ace after all."

Tossing a look back toward Ace, the mercenary laughed.

"She's an idiot, yours.  Tossing back food without even a sniffer..."

"Sniffer?"

"Portable scanner.  Like I said, you can never tell who's done something to your food."

Standing, Raine smoothed out some wrinkles in her trousers.

"I can assure you that the Doctor would never put something into the food.  Nor would I."

The mercenary looked up again, smiled almost genuinely.

"Keep telling yourself that, eh?"

* * *

 

He checked each of them in turn, monitoring respiration, pulse, brainwaves.  It had pained him to dose them, but he needed time alone to think.

One of them, the one whose name was Alice, was still awake, at least slightly.

"D-domin..."

"Hush now.  There's a good girl.  Go to sleep, hmm?"

Her eyes crossed as the lids fell.  Just like his Ace.  He smiled, picking up her arm, feeling for the pulse at her wrist.  She would be fine.

When he stood, he felt a little click in his vertebrae.  The spinal column had never really healed properly after the demise of his fourth self, and occasionally things would act up.  Straightening to his full height, he sighed, right hand twitching out a strange beat for a moment.

Then the knife was at his throat.

"What're you about, Professor?" the low voice hissed.

"Ace?"

"You don't need my name.  Why'd you do it, huh?  Gonna knock us all out and leave us here?  No way.  Not on my watch."

This was the cold one, the quiet one.  No name, at least not willingly given, and a nasty sort of habit of looking like she was about to attack.

"Calm down.  I only needed a little time alone to think."

"Right.  Think.  You mean you needed time to run off, to go back to the TARDIS on your own and leave me - leave us here.  Just like always."

There was something about her, something peculiar in the way she felt.  If any other Ace had wrapped an arm around his chest like this, he felt he could break free.  This one, however, seemed a little too strong.  A little more than human.

"What did he do to you?" the Doctor shuddered.

"Who?"

"Me.  The me in your reality."

No answer - just a closer pressing of the knife to his throat.

"I never hurt you.  Never intended..."

"You won't, anyway.  I've got all I need to keep me going.  Now I just need you to get me back to where I belong.  I've got things to do.  Places to be."

"Ace..."

"Shut up!  You and me, right now, are gonna go and find the TARDIS, yeah?  You so much as try to run, or to talk me down, and I'll slit your throat so fast you won't have time to regenerate before I've got miles away."

She managed to turn him, to point him in the direction she seemed to think they should go.

"Move, old man!"

With no other choice, the Doctor marched off into the jungle.

 


End file.
